We come into this world alone The lucky ones find another
by Fire Sage
Summary: "Isaac, why do you like me?" "Why would you ask that?" "Because I don't understand. I'm…different Isaac." Isaac smiles a little sadly at her. 'If only she knew' he thought. If only she knew that her quirks were nothing compared to his quirk of growing fangs, and fur, and running wild every full moon. But how could he tell her. How do you tell someone such a secret?
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or it's characters**_

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It had all started simple enough. One night Isaac wanted a slushie.

He made no attempt to tell the others that he wanted one, fearful that he would again be mocked for being the 'big-bad-werewolf' with a 'big-bad-sweet tooth', so he disguised his desire under the pretext of going for a run.

Not that it really mattered. No one was paying attention to him. Derek was engrossed in some dusty old book on the couch while Erica and Boyd did homework at the table.

So, alone, he headed out.

The one good thing about Derek's new place was that it was a lot closer to civilization than the Hale house had been. Granted, Isaac understood that that was more bad than good considering the fact that it's hard to hide the fact that they're werewolves from the neighborhood what with all the fighting and training and howling. But on the bright side it was only a block's walk to a local convenience store that severed six flavors of slushies year round.

A familiar 'ding-bong' greets Isaac when he walks in and he waves slightly at the balding eastern European man who is both owner and cashier this evening. The man doesn't wave back. He's a little too engrossed in the soft core porn mag he swiped from the magazine display to pay attention to Isaac.

The lanky teen walks to the back of the store where the slushie machines are and, finding someone already in front of the humming metal giants, he leans back on one foot and waits.

She's a rather thin little thing, like a dancer, in black boots and leggings. Her denim skirt might be a little too short to wear without leggings, but then again maybe her legs are too long. Even standing back some, he can tell she's just shy of his height which is tall for a girl. She has the hood of her jacket up, one of those trendy mini-peacoat numbers that stop to flair at the waist instead of the thigh. It's black too. He wonders, in the back of his mind, if it was an intentional choice or if it was just easier to match almost all black to black.

The girl seems finished and side steps to the right to let Isaac come up and get his own drink while she finishes assembling hers. He nods in appreciation but doubts she sees him past the dark hood.

His cup is almost filled with frozen cherry treat when he moves to the right to maybe add some Coke flavored slushie too before he caps his lid on, but when he moves his boney elbows jut out too far and knocks into the other customer's cup perched near the side, sending it toppling to the floor instantly.

"Oh sorry I…." Isaac's attempt at an apology gets stuck in his throat as he is met with the most beautiful green eyes he has ever seen. "I-uh I'm sorry."

"You said that already." The girl says in a bland sort of way, side stepping the red mess on the floor to get a new cup for her slushie.

She presses the cherry button again, and again, and again, before smacking it once and grumbling as nothing comes out.

"Here you can have mine." Isaac offers, his cup thrust out towards her before he even offers. The girl looks at it, then him, then the cup again back and forth before he explains, "I had cherry yesterday. I should probably cut back on the red dye 40." He laughs awkwardly. The joke is not well received. Still, she takes it and mumbles a thank you before reaching for a straw. "I'm Isaac."

"I'm Charlee, with two 'e's." She replies, the line seeming more reflexive than genuinely cordial.

"Seriously?" Isaac gives a light chuckle, thinking it's cute, but his smile quickly falls when he sees the panic of ridicule stain her fair complexion. "No wait I'm sorry! It's just…an unusual name..for a girl I mean. It kind of caught me off guard."

"I need to go." She says in a rush and before he can stop her she's off scurrying towards the front of the store.

Isaac curses through his teeth once he's alone. He hadn't meant to upset her. He thought her name really _was_ interesting.

He kicks the slushie machine lightly as he fills up a cup again, choosing blueberry now that it's out of cherry.

He expects her gone by the time he gets to the front of the store, but is surprised to see her still there, telling the clerk about the spill by the machines if Isaac can read his look of distain correctly.

When she turns around to look over her shoulder, she sees Isaac and ducks her head. The beta werewolf ducks his too, shuffling his feet towards the counter once she moves to pay for his drink.

"Listen, I really am sorry." Isaac tries again as she lingers for a minute to put her change back in her wallet. She doesn't say anything. Just picks up her drink and prepares to leave. "For what it's worth: I think Charlee is a real pretty name." He calls after her just as she's about to head through the door and is surprised that she actually stops just before crossing the threshold.

Charlee looks back over her shoulder at him, green eyes bright against her alabaster skin and golden mass of caramel colored hair stuffed in her hood. She seems to be thinking about something, mulling it over, and he hopes it's to accept his apology.

Suddenly, she's back through the door and is taking Isaac's slushie out of his hand and replacing it with the original one he offered her.

"I like blueberry better anyway." Is what she mutters, more down at the beverage than the actual owner, before she's gone and off into the night.

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_Review are always welcome!_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or it's characters**_

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A few days later, Isaac has another craving for a slushie.

He is again alone when he leaves Derek's loft, but offers this time except no one wants to come, and walks the couple blocks to the corner store. He thinks he'll get blueberry this time, but doesn't know why.

After the bell greets him Isaac halts when he sees the same figure that had been lurking around the store the last time he was here. Except she's at the candy display instead of the slushies. And her hood is down giving him a full view of thick, shoulder length golden rod hair that he almost envies for its straightness.

"Hey Charlee-" The girl in question flinches straight, knocking into the candy rack almost hard enough to tip it over.

"Please don't do that."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He had been trying to be cool. He planned to slide up next to her and go 'hey, Charlee right?' like he kind of remembered her but didn't remember her or something suave like that.

"You startled me." She corrects in that typical way a girl who has obviously been scared might say and makes a quick grab for a bag of Skittles. A couple bags of Skittles actually.

"Ok, well I'm still sorry."

"You say that a lot."

"Say what?"

"Sorry," She tells him, finally turning towards him and looking at him with a cool green stare. "Did you really almost say 'I'm sorry' to being told you say sorry too much? You did it again right there didn't you?"

Her observation causes conversation to halt. An awkward tension fills the air as silence stretches too long as Isaac doesn't know what to say if he can't apologize.

"So no cherry today?"

Charlee blinks once at his rather sudden attempt to not break the ice but smash it with a hammer before she shrugs. "Someone told me it was a good idea to cut down on red dye 40."

The partial grin on her lips tells Isaac that she's making fun of him. Ok, not the best, but at least she's not ignoring him, he thinks.

"Ouch. Ok, I get it. It wasn't funny." He relents, taking a soda out of the cooler instead of getting a slushie. And not because the sodas were next to the candy and the slushie machine was on the other end of the store. He just suddenly changed his mind ok. "Do you live around here or something?" He asks as they head to the front to pay for their separate items.

"Why?"

"A futile attempt to engage in small talk."

"Why?"

"Because you're hot," Isaac answers honestly and he's pleased with the faint blush that colors her impressive cheekbones.

"No, not really, I walk here from my house when I can't sleep. Insomnia." Charlee tells him as she puts her Skittles on the counter to pay.

"Alone?"

"Yeah alone why?"

"You shouldn't be out here alone. It's dangerous." Despite the typical cookie cutter message that Beacon Hills is a safe place to raise children, puppies, and kittens, it certainly was not at night.

The bell like sound of a giggle comes from her closed lips, twisted in a reluctant smile, "I can take care of myself."

He doesn't get why that's funny, maybe he's missing something critical but can't put his finger on it. Either way he's still concerned for the pretty girl out alone in the middle of the night.

"But you're pretty skinny."

The taller teen is taken by surprise when Charlee suddenly cold cocks him in the shoulder. "Did that hurt?"

"Yeah, kinda," He chuckles. It kind of had hurt a little. It must have been the advantage of surprise.

"I had three older brothers. If I can fight them off I think I'll be ok." She announces proudly, before knocking back a handful of colorful candies.

"You still shouldn't be out alone." Isaac insists. "Let me walk with you."

"You…wanna walk with me?"

Isaac stops and turns over his shoulder to see that Charlee hasn't moved. She seems frozen in place. Bolted to the ground in a mixture of confusion and surprise.

"Well yeah, unless…you don't want me to." _'Or think it's weird or creepy_' He hadn't really thought about it completely. This was only the second time they had met, both times had been at night in a convenience store that, despite having fantastic slushie flavors, was not the most reputable. For all she knew he could be a mugger, or a junkie, or a rapist. For all he knew she could be the same. He just had the advantage of being a werewolf if things went south.

"No. No that's ok. I…sure." It seems like she wants to argue, make some excuse, but give up half way through. He thinks that might be a habit of hers.

"Ok," Isaac says with a smile and they fall into step beside each other.

It's quite for a long while, the only sound between them being the shuffle of their boots against the asphalt, the hiss of Isaac's soda when he opens it, and the rattle of Charlee's Skittles as she eat them.

"So have you been in the area long?" He finally asks and Charlee shakes her head.

"No. We've only been here for a few months now."

"You don't go to Beacon Hills High?"

He doesn't really need to ask, he would have recognized her if she did. She was kind of hard to miss. That tall, petite yet feminine body, those green eyes with the facets like emeralds, that golden blonde hair the he could smell smelled of lavender and honey and just a touch of a faint smell that reminds him of snow that he can't tell is from her shampoo or just her skin. But for the point of conversation he'll ask.

"I'm home schooled."

"Oh yeah, how come?"

"Traditional school settings didn't sit well with me." She shrugs before kicking back another handful of candy.

Isaac chuckles. "It doesn't 'sit well' with anyone but you still have to go."

"Not me," It's mumbled around the mouth full of colorful sweets but Isaac got it, thinking he hears a twinge of irritation in her voice.

Conversation stops again.

"So, you have brothers? That's cool. What are they like?"

Charlee's lips scrunch in an indifferent frown as she shrugs. "I don't know. I guess they were ok. I haven't seen them in a while."

"How come? Did they leave for college or something?"

"Or something…."

There's a question to be asked there, but that sound of irritation in her voice stops Isaac from prying.

Conversation stops again.

"So…do you have any..hobbies or anything?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

Isaac looks over at the girl beside him looking at him with inquisitive, pensive look. He huffs through his nose and hunches his shoulder defensively.

"Ok, I'll stop then."

"No! It's ok. It's just no one's ever…." That habit of her stopping mid thought is showing again and Isaac looks back at her when she stops altogether. "No one's ever been interested in _me _before." Charlees confesses, seeming to be both embarrassed and in awe that someone might actually care about _her_ at the same time.

"Well, I'm interested."

Charlee's head tilts up slowly, green orbs connecting with blue for a second before its flinches back down, but he sees it. That tiny blush staining her cheeks and reluctant, but pleased, smile pull at her lips. And Isaac can feel it pulling at his too. Well….at least one attempt at suave had worked.

"Do you have any hobbies or anything?" She asks when she starts walking again, Isaac falling instantly into step.

"I play lacrosse on my school's team. I really like it. Other than that I just hang out with friends, homework, usual stuff."

"It must be nice." She bemuses quietly and Isaac laughs.

"What? Homework? Trust me it is highly over rated."

"Having friends."

Isaac looks back at her and his heart clenches at how unhappy see looks and lonely she sounds despite trying to hide it.

"I could be your friend."

Charlee halts again and looks up at him. "Really?"

"Well yeah, sure." Isaac says, rubbing the back of his neck and trying to think of a cool way to get out of the rather lame teen-flick line he's just said. He hadn't _meant _to say it. He had meant it but he hadn't meant for it to come out. "I mean, you seem alright I guess and I don't-!" Isaac's attempt to be cool, brooding, and nonchalant is cut off when the wind is almost knocked out of him by the girl in front of him slamming into him in what he thinks is meant to be a hug, not an attack.

"Sorry! Sorry! I got really excited. I'm sorry!"

The impromptu hug is over just as quickly as it started and Charlee all but leaps back, hands cupping around her nose and mouth in obvious mortification. It seems her…'hug' had taken her by surprise just as much as Isaac.

"It's…ok…."

He wants to laugh but thinks it might be rude. Charlee on the other hand makes a dramatic move of dropping her arms to her side and groaning loudly before running her fingers through her hair.

"Gah! Great! Now you probably think I'm some total spaz loser! I'm really not ok! I just don't think a lot before I act sometimes. Marcus says I need to work on that and Sydeny says I should try to be more like a lady but all I could think about when she said that was that stupid cotillion thing my mother made me go to when I was nine and it was awful so I completely blocked it out and-"Whoa! Slow down! I'm maybe only getting about 60% of that now."

Charlee's rapid speak stops on a dime, which is slightly impressive, before she tucks back into her shell and mutters sullenly. "Sorry…."

"It's ok. I just don't get why you're so excited."

Charlee glances back up at him for a second and looks embarrassed when she tells him, "Since we only just came here a month or so ago and I'm…homeschooled, I don't get a chance to meet a lot of people. Even before then I didn't have a lot of friends."

It's obvious to Isaac when she says that that she really doesn't have any friends. He's surprised but yet not surprised at the same time. It was hard to make friends normally, without the added obstacles she faces. But she just sounds so….alone that he feels the need to reach out to her. Throw her a life line. He remembers what it was like to be that alone.

"So you moved here. Where did you move from?" He asks and restarts his walking.

Charlee looks back up. She must have been expecting question, dreading having to give him answers, because the smile on her face when she sees he's just going to let it go and move on is one of relief and thankfulness.

"Tennessee. All of my family has been there since the Civil War days. Can't 'ca tell."

Isaac laughs a little at the exaggerated twang she puts into her voice at the end to sound like a Southern belle.

Someday soon he'll look back on this moment and remember how simple it had all been. How simple it had all been to fall in love with her and not stop and think about the hard ground below.

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_Thank you to all those of you who should early interest and faith in this story even though the first chapter was kind of short and almost crap. Review and feedback are always welcome!_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or it's characters**_

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"Where are you sneaking off to?"

Isaac's head jolts up when Erica appears in his doorway. He had been so distracted in his own head that he failed to notice her coming. Judging by her smirk she must have noticed.

"Nowhere, just going for a walk," He tells her, in an attempt to be nonchalant, and returns to tying his sneakers.

"Uh hn…you've been going for walks and runs every night this week."

"It's not every night Erica." But it almost has been hasn't it? Every free night for the past three weeks he heads out hoping to catch Charlee. Sometimes he does. Sometimes he doesn't. The man at the convenient store seems to be getting suspicious. Isaac thinks that he thinks they're selling drugs or something. "I just like to get some air."

"Hmmm….well, don't stay out 'getting some air' for too long. Derek wants early morning training." Erica warns and sashays off to do something of her own, probably with Boyd.

Isaac smirks, thinking that perhaps none of them are as clever as they like to think they are, and heads out.

* * *

Isaac is only jogging the first few blocks because he really does need to stretch his legs. Not because he wants to get to the convenience store faster.

It's become an unspoken thing between them that they meet at the store before going off somewhere for the rest of the night. And he says thing because it's not a date. They aren't dating. But Isaac wants to.

Something about Charlee really speaks to him; pulls at him almost like a secret tether. He feels this…bond with her that he's never felt with someone before, not even the pack. Isaac thinks back to a time when Scott had sapped on and on about how he and Allison were soul mates and, despite Isaac's best efforts to tune him out, some of it had gotten through. He thinks about that faded in and out conversation and reflects on the parallels between his situation now and Scott's.

_'Dear God! Please don't tell me I'm turning into Scott over this girl I just met! Please, please, please don't let me pull a Scott!'_

"Hey!" Isaac snaps out of his introspection to see Charlee bound over to him. He hadn't realized he had made it yet, his feet taking him there automatically. "I got mango and key lime, though it tastes more like lime than key-lime." It's so hard to not smile when she sips the green slushie again to test it before nodding the affirmative that it's more like limes than key-limes.

He takes the mango and she shrugs, seeming indifferent to either choice, and they head down the street.

A lot of the time they wonder around town. Other times they head for a park a few blocks away. Once they snuck up on to the roof top of some building through the fire escape. Isaac doesn't really care. He just likes being around Charlee and hearing her talk and learning about her and drinking slushies.

He's learned that she's not as reserved and cool as she likes to portray herself to be. She's excitable, not like Stiles, but definitely wears her emotions on her sleeves when she's not watching. He's learned that they share a fondness for almost all sweets and not just slushie. They once split a whole box of oreos in one sitting between the two of them when they had snuck into the park and drifted lazily around on the carousel. He's learned that she has both the grace of a jaguar and the klutziness of a baby deer. It still amazes him how she can stroll across a sidewalk railing with ease one minute only to trip on empty air when she's back in the ground in the next. He's learned that she's very bright, eloquent, and despite all these traits and beauty is almost painful shy at times. Her confidence is not the best, and she tries desperately to hide that. And he feels for her for that, remembering a time not so long ago that he thought he was worthless but tried to hide it by pushing everyone away.

"You know I'm getting kind of tired of slushie." Isaac interrupts smack dab in the middle of some rant about modern movie monsters and classic fiction monsters.

"Blasphemer!"

Isaac chuckles a little at Charlee's exaggerated accusation, her fake offense laughable. "No, what I'm saying is maybe we could get some real food."

"Like a date?"

Isaac looks over his shoulder, seeing Charlee has frozen to a halt in that way she does when she's taken by surprise with a wide eyed look. "Or…like get real food." He offers in alternative, thinking that maybe he's misinterpreted everything and she really does just want to be friends.

"Oh," Her face and shoulders fall drastically and she looks rather desolate.

"Or like a date?"

Charlee perks up again instantly, her smile beaming like the sun in the dark. "Yes! Can we go now?! This is so exciting! I've never been on a real date before!"

"Seriously?"

"Strict bible beater home school parents," She says that a lot when Isaac brings up something he thinks is typical-teenager that she's never done. He is at least a little happy that she has gotten over her initial embarrassment about these things and more shrugs them off as things she can't change.

The other teen shrugs, "Well I guess we could go now." He says not wanting to besmudge her her excitement. And if he is being honest, he wants to go now too.

* * *

The only place that is open now is a 24 hour diner that sells half-way decent coffee and above average waffles.

Their waitress, who arches a brow in a manner suggesting she finds it inappropriate that a pair of teenagers are out at nearly midnight on a school night, seats them in a both near the back. Probably worried that if she sits them too close to the door they'll bolt after their meal, Isaac thinks.

"What are you gonna get?"

"Umm…I kinda already ate before I came to meet you. So I'm not really hungry." Charlee confesses sullenly, dropping her pretense of getting a meal along with her menu.

"Why did you want to go now then?" He laughs.

"Because I thought you'd change your mind."

Charlee doesn't look at him when she tells him this, paying much closer attention to poking the ice cubes in her water with a straw.

Isaac can tell by her expression that she really thinks that. That she thinks that he'll change his mind, want nothing to do with her, and leave her alone again. So, in an effort to be bold and have his intentions finally understood, Isaac takes her free hand on the table and squeezes it gently.

"I won't change my mind."

Isaac can see a bit of heat spread to Charlee's cheeks like his hand does to hers when she smiles. If she's going to insist on going for walks when she can't sleep she's going to need to invest in gloves soon. Her hands are already like ice.

"What can I get 'ca?" Their moment is broken when the waitress in tacky teal eye shadow appears causing Charlee to snatch her hand away quickly.

Isaac smiles a little, sad but understanding. If he guesses right she's never had a boyfriend and this is very new for her. The thought makes his heart kick start a little faster and that possessive streak in his wolf also seems pleased. "Well if you're not gonna get anything I guess I-"Do you have pie?"

The request takes both Isaac and the waitress by surprise but the older woman nods. "Sure. We have apple, cherry, and chocolate."

"May I have cherry please?"

Charlee seems to look back to Isaac for approval and he smiles slightly with a nod before pointing to his menu.

"Can I get a number six please?" The waitress writes the request down and leaves again with not much else. "I thought you weren't hungry."

"I'm not. But there's always room for pie." She says with a bright smile and nonchalant shrug before reeling back in again. "And I didn't want you to not get anything because you had to eat alone."

Isaac feels his heart rate kick up again when those green eyes catch his through her lashes and he wonders how, strict bible beater parents or not, no one has ever thought to make this beautiful creature theirs before him.

"Well, thanks for not letting me eat alone." He tells her and takes her hand back in his. It's warmer now. And he likes the idea that it's because of him.

* * *

"So, how was your first ever date?" Isaac asks as they leave the diner and head down the street towards Charlee's house.

"I liked it. Not as _romantic_ as the movies make it out to be, but I got free pie."

They both chuckle a little at the joke. "Well, next time I'll have to step up my game."

"Next time?"

Isaac stops, expecting her to halt like she does, and smiles casually. "Yeah, next time."

Charlee blinks up at him like she's confused, like she still doesn't get it. Well, they can't have that.

It doesn't take much for Isaac's long legs to close the gap between them, fingers lacing into her soft caramel hair, and kiss her.

It wasn't much; he doesn't want to scare her. But the feeling of electricity that passes through him that both pulls him in and makes him sore, scares him a little. And that tether he thinks he feels is very real all of a sudden.

"That was my first kiss." Charlee sighs when he pulls back, dazed and lingering.

Isaac smiles and strokes her cheek with his thumb, fingers are still in her hair, "I figured."

It surprises him when Charlee takes the final step this time and kisses him, but he's eager to reprise.

When he gets home later, much later than he had originally planned, he doesn't even let Erica's snide comment of 'have a nice walk?' get him down before he falls into bed. Sweet dreams of long kisses on cherry flavored lips filling his dreams.

* * *

_Please review! Review and feedback are always welcome!_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or it's characters**_

* * *

Soon it is every night that Isaac is out.

With different school schedules and his extra-curriculars along with his…'extra-curriculars' it's really seems the only time they can see each other.

Isaac doesn't mind though. He practically lives for the night now and when he can see Charlee again.

But his late night rendezvous are starting to take their toll.

Even with his werewolf powers and trained ability to sleep sporadically thanks to former grave digging, his lack of sleep is starting to show.

Derek is getting annoyed, telling him that if he's slow in training he'll be slow in the field and it will get him killed.

Erica seems to have an idea of what's going on because she always has this coy grin on her face when she ask 'what 'ca been up to?' or 'some_thing_ keeping you up at night'.

The others have taken notice too. Scott has been asking what's wrong at almost every turn but Isaac shrugs him off. Stiles makes some witty snark but Isaac doesn't have the energy to banter. He falls asleep in class from time to time and shuffles to class like a zombie. Greenburg even took him out in lacrosse practice last week. _Greenburg_ of all people.

He's gonna have to tell Charlee that he can't see her every night. But God he doesn't want to…..

"Isaac…._Isaac_!"

The curly haired teen snaps awake, head flying off the lunch table just as his hands slam into it.

Erica and Jackson laugh at him; even Danny and Lydia snicker despite themselves.

"Isaac, are you sure you're ok? You've been falling asleep all over the place recently." Scott asks in his typical good guy concern. It both warms Isaac's heart and makes him grate his teeth with how caring he can be.

"Yeah I'm fine, just been out all night with Charlee." The dead silence that follows that statement as he rubs his eyes lets Isaac know he's messed up.

"Charlie? Who's Charlie?"

Isaac curses in his head. He had been wanting to avoid the inevitable interrogation. "Charlee with two _'e's_. She's a girl." He says, too tired to argue. And if the cats out of the bag he might as well get it over with.

"Oh, ok. For a second there I thought you started batting for the other team."

"What's wrong with that?" Danny asks with an arched brow at Stiles.

"Nothing! Nothing! I just _assumed_ Isaac played for one team and I had not been aware he had been traded to another. Or…not not been traded." The sporadic boy backtracks quickly.

"So let me get this straight. _You_ have a _girlfriend_ Lahey?" Jackson asks, looking damn near on the verge of another laughing fit at the other teen's expense.

Isaac glares at him. It wasn't _that_ obscured for him to have a girlfriend. True, he had never had one before, but that was more from him not _wanting_ to have one thanks to his home life. Plus he had never really wanted one, truly wanted someone, until he met Charlee.

"I knew you were sneaking off to meet some girl." Erica says haughtily, nose turned up and superior smile on her red lips. "So, when do I get to meet the lucky lady?"

"Never if I can help it," Isaac deadpans.

"Awww! Boo! Are you ashamed of me Isaac?"

"It's not that." And it's really not. He isn't embarrassed about either side, nor does he feel guilty for being in a relationship and keeping it from his friends, but….if he told them about her it made it more real. And if that happened then the bubble around them, the perfect stolen moments when it was just the two of them in the world, would be gone. He doesn't want to give that up yet. "We just haven't been hanging out that long."

"Dude, we're gonna have to meet her sooner or later. Where is she?" Stiles tells him and darts his head around in a manner that reminds Isaac of a chicken. He would laugh at the thought if he wasn't so tired.

"She doesn't go here."

"Ooooh. Sure Lahey…."

Isaac's gaze shifts back over to Jackson at the drawl. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing!" Jackson says quickly, but his smirk lets Isaac know that it is _something_. "Just next you're going to tell us that she lives like two towns over so we can't see her after school either."

"Why do you care?"

"I don't. Whatever you want to do with your imaginary girlfriend at night is your business."

"She's not imaginary!" Isaac growls in defense of himself.

But Jackson just drawls another, "Sure Lahey…." And pick patronizingly at his lunch.

Isaac is in no mood to be mocked.

He's tired, and on a very short fuse, and Jackson has no right to act like _he's_ so much better than Isaac, and he's about to jump across the table and slash that smug look off his face when Scott stops him.

"Isaac!" He shouts, loud enough for their small group to hear but no one else. The shout brings Isaac back to the present, and his eyes return to normal instead of gold.

"I don't have to prove anything to you," he spits.

"No, you don't." Jackson tells him, that smirk on his face. "But if you did you would invite her to the game Friday. Cause that's what a _normal_ girlfriend would do. That would certainly shut me up."

"Fine I will!"

"Good," Jackson doesn't need to smirk that way when he says it to let Isaac know he's been played. He knew the second he agreed. He walked right into it damnit.

"Isaac if you don't feel comfortable with it-"It's fine." He cuts in to Allison's probably heart felt, well-meaning speech about how it was ok to be you the way you were.

"Well, I for one would love to have another girl around. There's too much testosterone around here."

"Speak for yourself." The group laughs at Erica's follow up snark at Lydia's comment, who mocking laughs back at the blonde.

Even Isaac smirks. '_Yeah,'_ he thinks, _'maybe it would be good.'_

* * *

"You….want me to meet your friends?" Charlee asks with that odd, but enthralling expression she gets when she's torn between being surprised and unsure.

"Well, yeah." Isaac says with a slight laugh as he swings lazily beside her. Though swinging is a strong word. They're more sitting on swings they probably aren't supposed to because the park is supposed to be closed but are moving because the swings, well, swing. "We've been hanging out for a while now and they want to meet the reason I keep nodding off in class."

"Oh…I'm sorry. I didn't think-"It's ok. So you'll meet them right?" Isaac interrupts, hoping he can get a 'yes' with the sympathy points he's just racked up.

"I…I guess."

"Great!" Isaac beams, which seems to infect her just a little. "Um…we were all gonna go grab pizza after the lacrosse game on Friday. You don't have to come to that but-"Do you not want me to come?"

"No, it's not that-"Do you want me to come?" Charlee cuts in again and Isaac ducks his head, rubbing his neck.

The blonde chuckles a little and shakes her head. "I'd love to go."

"Really?" Isaac perks up and she nods with a sweet smile, saving him the embarrassment of having to actually ask her to come. "Awesome!" He exclaims and leans over to kiss her cheek. She blushes and bites her lip nervously. And he thinks it's both the cutest and sexiest thing he's ever seen, so he kisses her again. "Oh man, it's really late." Isaac says glancing at his watch when they come back up for air. Well…Isaac lets her come up for air. With his abilities he could kiss her for much longer, and wouldn't mind a single second of it even when his lungs started to burn.

"You should go. I should probably try to get some sleep tonight anyway."

"How do you function with insomnia?"

"It's a gift." She says with a shrug and he smirks before kissing her cheek. They shimmy back over the low fence of the park, Isaac helping her up and over even though she insists that she can do it. Isaac tells her he knows but wants an excuse to touch her butt and he's pleased when her face flushes deep red for her and punches him in the arm. He takes the sting with a laugh. They're about to part ways when Charlee calls to him. "Isaac?" The boy turns to look over his shoulder at her on her the railing of her fire escape she apparently sneaks out of. "What if your friends don't like me?"

Isaac smiles lazily and shrugs his shoulders, "How could they not like you? You're incredible."

Charlee's eyes widen for a second before they down cast to the ground with a sheepish smile. And Isaac can't help but close the space between them in two strides of his long legs and kiss her goodbye again before he heads home.

Charlee watches him go, green eyes trailing after him long after he's disappeared. "He's cute." Charlee flinches violently as she looks upward, wide eyed at the other blonde on the dressed far too prim and stylish for appearing on fire escape scaffolding in the middle of the night.

"What are you doing here Sydeny?"

The other, platinum haired blonde smirks her coral colored lips and pushes off the railing. "Walking…"

"Did Marcus send you?"

Sydney scoffs. "Lets pretend, for a moment, Marcus could make _me_ do anything; do you really think Marcus would send me?" She asks as she slides down the ladder and hops down to the ground, an impressive feat given her very high heels. "Does he know?"

"Know what?"

"That your hair isn't naturally blonde. Don't be coy Charlee Anne."

Charlee glares and pouts at the other woman who just smiles and bright, pearl white grin. But her moment of rebellion quickly flees and she looks at the ground. Sydeny rolls her eyes, a sweet tea brown in the low light, already bored since she knows the answer. "Well, I was going to head home. I just got a free meal and a shag, though…not in that order, so I'm calling it a night. Have you eaten?" Charlee nods sullenly and Sydney rolls her eyes again with an exaggerated sigh. "Good Lord! I will be so thankful when this teen angst phase of yours is over. _'Waaa! No one understands me! I'm so alone! Blah, blah, blah!'_" Despite Sydney mocking her Charlee falls dutifully behind her a few paces, and stays silent for the whole trip home.

* * *

_Please review! I would love some feedback on this story! It really helps the process!_

_Please again and thank you_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or it's characters**_

* * *

Isaac is antsy for the rest of the week until Friday.

He had been miffed and upset that Charlee refused to see him every day until Friday, having not been apart more than a day or two since they met and even less apart since they had become more serious, but she reasoned with him that he needed to catch up on his sleep and he would need his strength for the 'big game'. He wanted to argue but found it rather endearing to have someone look out for his safety and wellbeing for once; not just as a pack member or instrument but actually _him_ for once. So he resigns himself to text messages and phone calls, trying very hard not to tell her that he misses her and sound like a sap.

He wants to tell her a lot of things actually. He wants to tell her that she's beautiful, that she lights up his day, that he thinks about her all the time, that he…might be in love with her. But he doesn't. He figures it would be rather inappropriate to tell her those things because they have only been seeing each other a short while, and damn him if he isn't determined to not jump the gun like Scott did with Allison. He was _not_ going to pull a Scott.

Still, by the time Friday came he might as well just cut his hair and trade in his Henelys for button ups and one-size too small tanks because he was downright giddy with the thought of seeing Charlee. He at least tries to hold it in more than Scott would, constantly wearing his thoughts on his sleeves, but can't wipe the dopey grin off his face.

But as he and the rest of the team jog out onto the field, and he scans the cheering crowd, he doesn't see her. He checks and double checks but doesn't see her. She's not there.

Isaac is jarred from his thoughts when a shoulder pad roughly collides with his. He looks up to see Jackson moving out towards the field with Scott and Stiles for the first face-off; the smirk on his face before he slips in his mouth piece and pulls over his helmet letting him know that he knows she's not there and Isaac growls low in his chest at him.

Boyd must have heard him because he places his hand on his shoulder and gives him a look that says 'calm down, we're in public' before ushering him over to the bleachers. Isaac huffs through his nose but obeys.

He does not sulk through the first quarter. He doesn't. He's just…irritated. If she didn't want to come, or if something came up, she could have just said so. She wouldn't have hurt his feelings….a lot. Maybe she just thought she could not come and he wouldn't notice. It's fairly plausible. Even with the modest turn out they have, since lacrosse isn't that mainstream, it would be hard to spot one person. But then again, Stiles always seems to find Lydia at the games and he's human. _But then again_ Stiles is hopelessly in love with Lydia and has been since the third grade, he's told Isaac, several times, so maybe he wasn't the best person to go off of. Maybe Isaac is thinking too much into this. Or maybe he was thinking too much into them. Or maybe this was her way of telling him she didn't want to see him anymore.

Just as Isaac's mind goes into a spiral of self-doubt and loathing his nose picks up the scent of lavender and honey.

He immediately perks up and whips his head around towards the bleachers, beaming when he sees Charlee. But his smile falters when he sees she is not alone. She is with a group of people.

There are three of them, four total with Charlee, all walking in a line across the bleachers to get a seat.

The first is a black haired bombshell. She looks older than Charlee, possibly in her senior year of college or first year of graduate school. Her hourglass figure is proportionate and well defined, like she works out a lot to maintain her figure that Isaac can tell is stellar even with her lose fitting top and leather jacket. She is less pale than Charlee, but still looks like she stays in doors in the summer months. Her face is more angular than Charlee's heart shaped one with piercing blue eyes that seem both vast and closed off. She looks like the kind of woman who could make a man stare. Isaac knows that she's making him do it.

Behind her is a man. He looks to be around the first's age and he thinks that perhaps the first is his girlfriend and he is one of Charlee's brothers. They look sort of similar. But perhaps it's just the dusk blonde colored hair. He doesn't share Charlee's complexion, or green eyes, or cherub like features. He's very solid looking, strong, and has brown eyes. So perhaps they aren't that similar after all. Isaac can appreciate as a straight man that he's handsome though he doesn't appreciate that he is so close to Charlee, not without knowing who he is.

Charlee is behind the man and behind her is another wisp of a thing that looks like she could be carried away in a strong breeze. If Charlee is fair, this girl is pale. Yet she still manages to look attractive, almost like she's a moving marble statue. She's petite, just shy of Charlee's abnormal girl height, but still holds some feminine curves to her narrow waist as she glides. She doesn't walk. Her hair is white. Well…perhaps not white. A white blonde of natural platinum placed in a tight updo that looks like it took hours to achieve. Her playful hazelnut color eyes dart around and her straight white teeth grin like this is all very funny as she looks down her nose. He decides he doesn't like her.

A sharp, almost indiscriminant glance from the first woman sends a couple scurrying for a new set of seats and they fall into them just as they came. The woman crosses her legs and arms while the man leans back, elbows propped up on the rung behind him, both looking positively bored and loath to be there. Charlee is glancing around in mortification, shoulders hunched and hood up as if she's trying to hide, while the other blonde leans in and shakes a Beacon Hill colored pom-pom she must have gotten when they arrived at her in satirical enthusiasm. Charlee just ducks her head further into her hood. Isaac decides he doesn't like that one at all.

"Lahey!" The blonde boy snaps back towards Coach Finstock at the sound of his name, the man looking beyond irritated and on the verge of an aneurism, as always. "Get your head out of your ass and into the game! _Please!_" Isaac knows the 'please' is forced and only added so he doesn't get another 'namby-pamby whiny soccer mom' complaining how he's too 'rough' with the boys (followed by some colorful language and his ever present bemoan of 'I should be teaching college').

"Yes Coach!" Isaac says dutifully and chucks in his mouth piece before grabbing his helmet. As he walks out on the field, taking the 'go get 'em' smack in the shoulder from Greenburg as he heads back towards the bench, he looks back to the bleachers and catches Charlee's head poked out of her hood and smiling at him.

"Hey Lahey, gonna impress your _girlfriend_?" Jackson taunts when he gets to the line, words muffled around his mouth guard but understood by a fellow player and werewolf.

"Yeah, something like that." Isaac snaps back, eyes flashing golden as he prepares for the face-off at the line. _'Let's play'_

* * *

"Dude! I still can't believe that play you made." Stiles exclaims, two sodas in to their celebratory group pizza date.

"Psh. It wasn't that impressive." Jackson mutters as he sips his water, looking irritated that he, Lydia, Allison, Scott, Stiles, Erica, and Isaac are all crammed like sardines into a U-shaped booth near the back of the restaurant. Boyd and Danny couldn't come, having to rush home per their parents request after the game.

"Seriously?! He made the shot from practically half-way across the field! You two can't even do that!" The eccentric teen says while pointing between the two other werewolf players who pout slightly.

Isaac smiles partially as Stiles gushes about his performance at the game. He's not the only one. Most of the team and Coach had told him that it was the best game he had ever played, warning Jackson and Scott about their top spots being in trouble if he planned to play like that regularly.

"Hey! I could do it!" Jackson snaps before flopping back against the booth with his arms crossed. "I just don't because it's reckless and a waste. Besides it takes the challenge out of the game if I use my powers."

"Really? Is that why you practically begged Derek for the bite?"

Stiles howls when Jackson kicks his ankle roughly under the table before being scolded by Lydia. He growls but scoffs again. "I was already a much better player before either of you losers got artificially enhanced! And _I_ don't all of the sudden become a good player because of some girl!" He defends before turning a sharp eye at Isaac. "By the way, where is she?"

Isaac's haughty look of superiority falters as the other demands proof of Charlee. "I saw her at the game. She's coming."

"Are you sure?" Scott asks, not trying to sound unsure and probably wanting to make sure she knew to meet them there but sounding suspicious none the less.

"If she's not here in 10 minutes I submit she's imaginary and you owe me 20 bucks."

"Jackson!" Stiles hisses as he elbows the boy in the ribs.

"You bet that she wasn't real?" Isaac asks as he narrows his eyes at Stiles.

"Not that I don't think she's real! I needed 20 bucks! It seemed like a solid bet!"

"Up until the point that she's imaginary and out 20 bucks," Jackson smirks.

"Can everyone stop saying 20 bucks?" Lydia chimes in, seemingly already over this 'group date'.

"She has blonde hair right?" Allison says and everyone looks over towards the doorway that she's squinting at as it chimes.

When Charlee walks in it's like the whole world slow down, like it's suddenly righted itself. She scans the room for a minute before spotting him and smiles, that smile that burns so bright it warms him up, and heads over towards them.

"Well I'll be damned Lahey." Isaac hears Jackson mutter in appreciation and smirks a little cockily at him before standing.

"Hi! Sorry I'm late. It was hell getting out of that parking lot."

"It's ok." Isaac assures her, taking her hand instead of kissing her cheek like he wants to because he knows she's not comfortable with PDA. She still blushes a little. "Everyone this is Charlee. Charlee this is everyone."

The group gives a resounding, simultaneous "Hi Charlee," and she quietly chuckles nervously as she sits next to Isaac.

"Wow, this sounds like an AA meeting. Not that I've ever been to AA but that's what it sounds like on TV. I'm gonna shut up now."

The group laughs a little as Charlee flounders over words and Isaac squeezes her hand under the table, silently telling her 'it's ok, don't be nervous'.

"So, Charlee, did you like the game?" Allison asks and Charlee picks up her head a little.

"Yeah, I did. I don't know much about lacrosse though. Where I'm from football is the only sport. It's the second biggest religion next to Baptist."

The group does laugh at that and Isaac can see Charlee's shell unfurl a little.

"That's ok honey." Lydia says, "I've been here all my life and don't know a damn thing except Jackson plays it." Jackson elbows the redhead playfully and she giggles.

"So where are you from originally Charlee?" Erica asks while playing with her straw, obviously more interested in her to irritate Isaac than the other's good nature.

"Tennessee. My whole family is from there."

"Wow that must be a big switch from there to here." Allison says sympathetic, Isaac thinks, as a girl who's moved around a lot too.

"Yeah, kind of. I don't get out so much. I'm homeschooled. And have insomnia. So my sleep pattern is kind of…meh."

Jackson snorts a laugh at that and says, "Well, no wonder you bag this one Lahey. She doesn't know any better."

Isaac ducks his head a little at the joke, not liking it, but gives everyone a chance to get a chuckle in before he bites back.

"That's not funny."

The group of teenagers all stop and look at Charlee who is looking menacingly at the jock.

"Whoa, take it easy. It was just a joke." Jackson dismisses with a shrug, like always.

"That doesn't make it ok. Apologize." Charlee demands, refusing to be dismissed or his rudeness entertained, and staring the other down. The others can feel Jackson's wolf start to reel at the challenge but before it can get out of hand Charlee's phone rings and she excuses herself to take it.

"Whoa…freak."

"Don't call her that!" Isaac hisses at the other wolf, flashing his eyes in warning.

"Yeah, Jackson, that was kind of rude." Allison agrees.

"Did you see the way she looked at me?! She looked like she was gonna rip my face off!"

"I'm gonna rip your face off if you keep talking about her like that!"

Jackson turns back to Isaac, who's claws are digging into the wood of the table while his teeth bare at him, and glares. "Oh, you wanna go Lahey? Bring it on!"

"Jackson, Isaac, quit it!" Lydia cries as she and the others try to restrain the boys who are trying to get at each other despite the table in the way.

Stiles sees Charlee coming back and smacks at them to get them to stop and folding his arms 'inconspicuously' just as she stops at the table. "Hey, um…I gotta go."

"But you just got here." Allison says, almost whining as she tries to sound bummed she's leaving. Maybe she really is, Isaac can't tell.

"I know but…I'm sorry."

"I'll walk you out." Isaac says, not happy but he won't force her to stay. She met them and they met her. Mission accomplished. "Listen, if this is about Jackson-"It's not. I really need to get home." Charlee cuts in when they're outside.

Isaac furrows his brow as he watches her fidget. She's nervous, nervous about something, but it's not them. He opens his mouth to ask what's wrong but is cut off as a shout of, "Charlee!" cuts through the parking lot.

The pair whips around and Isaac sees the blonde man from the game standing by a car. He's looking at them, a displeased look on his face, as he gestures for Charlee to get in the car and ask what she's doing.

Charlee holds up her hand, asking for a minute, and the man sighs exasperatedly as she turns back around. "Isaac I gotta….I'll…I'll call you later ok."

To Isaac she sounds like she's pleading. Pleading for him to not be mad at her, or to understand, or something else, he doesn't know. He does know that he doesn't like Charlee like this, looking so unsure and small as she's torn between staying with Isaac and running towards the other man at his command. He doesn't like this other man.

"Ok. Call me later," Isaac says and keeps his gaze past her towards the car when he hugs her and kisses her cheek.

The man must notice because his back straightens and gaze narrows at them, which Isaac returns. His face is all smiles though when he lets Charlee go and she smiles a little at him before scurrying off towards the car. Isaac stays there, watching her go, and if he focuses his hearing to eavesdrop on an exchange of, "I don't like him," from the man and a "Please Marcus don't," from Charlee well that's an accident.

* * *

**_Please please please review! I would still love some feedback on this story and know how everyone is liking (or not liking) the story so far._**

**_Please again and thank you_**


	6. Chapter 6

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or it's characters**_

* * *

Isaac shifts his weight back and forth on fidgety feet as he waits for Charlee.

After that Friday he can't see her again for a while. The full moon comes and for the first time in a long time Isaac has to be chained down. He's anchored himself, so he doesn't shift, but his wolf growls and snaps and claws and tries to get control of his legs to run. Run to Charlee.

It's impossible to focus; he smells her scent everywhere even though it's not there, sees her face when he closes his eyes, hears her voice between his ears. And it scares him. It scares him to think of what he would do if he broke free and he found her. His wolf and blood is thrumming for something, but this time it's not to kill.

The thought of hurting her binds him in his body but it's still a struggle to keep sane. Derek is obviously unhappy that Isaac has to be locked up all three nights but seems fractionally pleased that he submits to the chains rather than his instincts. He keeps telling them that just because they shift into animals doesn't mean they have to act like them.

On the morning of the fourth day, even though he's haggard and worn to the bone, he calls Charlee. She can immediately tell something is wrong with him; it's not that hard, his vocal cords have been abused with all the screaming and howling he's done over the past few days to the point they sound like they've been rubbed with sandpaper. He insists that he's fine, tells her he's just been sick for a few days. His heart aches when he hears her coo and instantly offers to bring him soup if he thinks it will help. He says no. He just wants to see her.

So he stands here, in the alley by the convenience store they first met so the owner doesn't call the cops on him for loitering or something, and waits. His hands are in the front of his hoodie pocket, thumbing the shiny trinket in there as he thinks over the conversation he had with the pack before he left.

_"Have you told her Isaac?"_

_The curly haired teen stops getting ready, hoodie in hand, as Derek appears. He looks over his shoulder and sees Boyd looking rather guilty, so he doesn't have to wonder how Derek knows. Traitor."Told her what?" He asks while pulling the sweatshirt on._

_He doesn't see it but can feel the 'don't be stupid' look Derek gives the back of his head. "About you. About what you are."_

_Isaac's head pops free of the hoodie and with a frown rolls up his sleeves. "I haven't found a good time to tell her yet." Because when was a good time to tell the girl you may or may not love but at the very least like very, very much that you're a werewolf._

_"Look, Isaac, you need to tell her now before it's too late to tell her. What if-"Derek, I know ok! Just get off my back." He snaps, head snapping back towards the other in tandem._

_He knows it's a bad idea to shout at the Alpha, but he doesn't need Derek to remind him of what could happen. He thinks about it all the time._

_What if he attacks her during a slip of the full moon? Or just regularly? What if he shifts in front of her? What if he terrifies her and she never wants to see him again? What if he tells her and she leaves him?_

_"You want my advice?" Erica pipes up, unwarranted or wanted in the conversation but still feeling the need to add her two-cents. "Buy her jewelry first. Soften the blow."_

_"That's materialistic and shallow." Boyd tells her with a sideways glance._

_"But effective," she shrugs and flitters off with an offer to help him pick something out._

That had been the end of the conversation.

Derek had given him a stern look to tell her. Boyd had given him a more sympathetic look but one in agreement with the Alpha. Erica didn't care one way or the other. And that was that.

He thinks about talking to Scott about it, he's had to go through a similar situation with Allison before the world went off-kilter and collided between the two of them, and decides against it. Besides he had never actually told Allison, she had found out. Same with Lydia. And they had both taken it relatively 'well' because their lives had been involved in the supernatural for a while. The fact that there were werewolves didn't complicate things so much as it cleared things up. Charlee wasn't like that.

He mulls over the idea of asking Derek to give her the bite, thinking he wouldn't object to another member in the pack and it would be easier for her to accept if she was one of them, but squashes it. He wouldn't ask Derek to force the bite on her without her consent, much like Peter did Scott; who, speaking of which, seemed to grow a new telepathic sense when he thought of the idea and appeared by his ear to whisper 'don't even think about it'. It freaked Isaac out and he doesn't ask what Peter means even though he's confused.

So, out of options other than the truth, he buys a gift as Erica suggested and waits with a stone in his gut.

"Isaac!" The shout of his name gets Isaac's attention and he turns just in time for Charlee to all but slam into him, her arms wrapping around his neck as her feet kick up just a little off the ground. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." He sighs, wrapping his arms around her in return and nuzzling the bridge of his nose against her hair. He hadn't realized how much he had missed her until she was back in his arms, her scent in his nose, her smile in his eyes. He holds her a little tighter, an inner struggle between joy and dread at their reunion, because he doesn't want to let her go.

"I thought you were mad at me."

"Mad at you?"

"For bailing on your friends, being late to the game."

Isaac smiles and pulls back just a little to see her face, tilting it up by her chin so he can look her in the eye, "I'm not mad at you." He finds it hard to think of ever being mad at her.

"But your friends-"They like you." Isaac tells her, and it's not a total lie. Jackson doesn't like her, but he doesn't give two shits about what Jackson likes. He's only friends with him because he's pack and the ratio in which they get along is slim. The others seem willing to give her time and another chance, so they must like her somewhat. "And even if they didn't I wouldn't care because _I_ like you." The embarrassed, sheepish smile on Charlee's lips as she blushes ever so slightly and looks away makes Isaac want to do nothing more than kiss her forever and say it over and over again. And he realizes he has to tell her the truth. He can't keep lying to her. "I got you something."

"Me?"

Isaac chuckles a little at the surprised, excited squeak in Charlee's voice as her eyes go wide. "Close your eyes."

She seems hesitant at first but complies and Isaac gets a little thrill that she trusts him enough to listen. He circles around behind her and pulls the necklace he got her out of his pocket. He couldn't afford to get her gold, so he hoped silver would do. He even prepared this whole cheesy speech about how even though the necklace was silver he thought she was gold. But he's having second thoughts about saying it. The heart pendant and chain go around her neck and he thinks he can get the clasp done in the dark (he's practiced even) when he hears a sizzling sound and the smell of burnt skin come into the air.

Charlee screams and rips the necklace off her neck and out of Isaac's hands and throws it across the alley.

"Charlee what-" Isaac asks, seeing her doubled over in pain as she holds her throat, and tries to reach for her but is cut off when she swings back at him fast with a high pitched screech. He's startled, but not by the attack and the screech so much as the burning red ring around her beautiful green eyes and fangs barred menacingly at him with a hiss when she looks back at him.

What…what was she…?

The girl seems to realize what she's doing and just as quickly as they came the red rings and fangs and burn disappear and she is once again the normal looking girl Isaac had known a moment ago, looking positively terrified.

"Char-" Isaac tries, taking a tentative step closer, but she's gone before he can reach her. She's gone in literally the blink of an eye, papers and trash kicking up by her gust as she takes off into the night.

* * *

**_Please please please review! I would still love some feedback on this story and know how everyone is liking (or not liking) the story so far._**

**_Please again and thank you_**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or it's characters**_

* * *

After Charlee races off Isaac just heads home. Well…at first he stands there like an idiot, looking confused and heartbroken as he stares off into what is now empty space, and then he leaves.

No one talks to him or asks him 'how it went'. He assumes he probably doesn't look exactly cheerful so they must think that he told her and it didn't go well. He doesn't correct them.

He also doesn't tell anyone what really happened. At first it was because he didn't understand and thought no one would believe him. Later he still didn't because if Derek thought she was something dangerous he would try to kill her, as per his usual response when dealing with the supernatural that's wandered into the area. He doesn't want her hurt.

After the initial shock is over, which takes a few days to wrap his head around because he has to sort through essentially four of the five stages of grief because bargaining doesn't really apply, before he tries to find Charlee.

It's a harder task than it sounds. Isaac may be a werewolf but he's still new. He can smell certain scents and hear certain sounds that he normally wouldn't have as a human, but the finer key tones of tracking still elude him. Still he tries his best. First he goes to the alley, which he knows is a bust since it's been days since either of them has been there. Then he goes into the convenient store, the owner must think he's high being out so late and wandering around the store sniffing the air. He tries the park they go to, a bookstore they once visited, the brownstone he thought was her home, but can't find her anywhere. She's vanished into thin air.

On the fifth night, Isaac is ready to give up entirely. He's lost more sleep in these past few days than he had in the weeks with Charlee. The others are starting to realize his distress; even Derek turns a concerned eye towards him rather than a hard one, when a cool night breeze picks up in the air and Isaac hisses as the cold pierces through his layers. But then, he catches it.

The faint smell of lavender and honey just barely on the edge of the air, but he can smell it. He _knows _it's her.

Isaac takes off in pursuit of the sweet smell. He has to find her. He has to. He has to talk to her, to understand, to just see her again.

The scent leads him on a winding path through the town and at the threshold of a graveyard not unlike the one his father owned. Later, when this is all over and he looks back on it, he'll laugh at the cliché of a vampire and a werewolf meeting in a graveyard on a dark, cold night.

His feet carry him soundlessly, he would later like to think that Derek would be proud of him for the level of stealth, until he spots her. His breath catches when he sees her, sitting with her back propped against a tombstone, knees to her chest, chin on her knees, and the tiny sound must sound loud to her because she jolts up and is on her feet in a second.

"Charlee wait!" Isaac cries, seeing the urge to flee written plain in her wide green eyes.

She stays, but is so ridged she looks like she could snap. "Stay away!" She shouts. "I'll…I'll kill you if you come any closer!"

Isaac smiles a little at that, because you didn't need werewolf senses to tell she was lying. "No you won't." He says plainly and approaches, slowly; he's not stupid. He stops at about arm's length because he doesn't want to scare her and have her run or attack and he feels bad for thinking of her like a wild animal. The tension feels like an actual wall between them and Isaac asks, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well when was I supposed to tell you?! Hi my name is Charlee I'm a blood sucking vampire' or 'Gee this is really good pizza. You know what this sauce reminds me of? Blood. Which I drink a lot of.'" Charlee explodes, like she's been holding that in for a long time.

"I'm sorry…" He doesn't know what else to say and Charlee hisses through her teeth.

"Yeah, you're sorry. Everyone's sorry…." She trails off, then sighs heavily before rubbing her arm. "I'm sorry I…didn't tell you. Hard to explain or not I shouldn't have lied. But…I was lonely. Marcus and everyone, they're so much older than me, it's hard to relate to them. But when I met you, I wasn't so lonely anymore. I was actually happy for the first time in a long time. Even before all this I was always…..I just didn't want to give that up." Charlee looks up at him with those big, beautiful green eyes, begging him to understand. "Everything I told you was the truth though. All the stuff we talked about was real. That's who I _really_ am. Not….this."

"Yeah…..Yeah same here." Isaac says, realizing that everything he had told her and they had shared on some level had to be real. And…maybe this didn't have to be weird. Yes, ok, she was a vampire. But he and most of his friends were werewolves. Jackson was a homicidal lizard there for a while. Allison was from a family of hunters that tried to kill most of them. Lydia was a banshee. Maybe…just maybe…if they focused on who they were instead of _what_ they were things didn't have to change. Isaac steps a little closer, edging in careful so the distance between them isn't so far. "So…what's it like being a vampire?"

"I don't know. I've only been one for two years. I'm still learning."

"Oh, so you're not…"

"Hundreds of years old?" She asks, looking up at him through her lashes and just the hint of a smile "No. Marcus says that that's a myth actually. We don't live forever, just a really long time."

"Oh."

"Yeah," Charlee turns and sits on the edge of the headstone she was once against and Isaac joins her. "The sunlight thing isn't real either. If you stay out too long your skin will get all dry and cracked and will split and bleed but no flames. It just hurts a lot and makes us weak. Silver too that's why I…" They both look away from each other at the memory of their last encounter. "But the super strength and speed is real. I can out pace a motorcycle and then throw it. And I can see in the dark. Actually most of my senses are pretty baller now too, it's pretty intense."

Isaac laughs a little, finding it incredibly funny that she used the word 'baller'. "Mine too. I mean, I don't know if it's the _same_ for you, but my senses are like crazy high pitched now. I can literally hear a pin drop if I concentrate." He realizes he's running his mouth when Charlee looks at him confused. Oh…right…"I uh…I tried to tell you the other night."

Isaac focuses on pulling his wolf out, just a little. He feels his nails and teeth grow and sharpen, his eyes gold when he opens them.

"What are you?" Charlee asks, looking at him with a cross of awe and fear but still examining him like he's an experiment in a jar.

Isaac closes his eyes and pulls his wolf back in, again normal when he speaks. "Werewolf. I got the Bite a few months ago. Don't worry I asked for this."

"You asked?"

The idea of wanting to be something like this seems foreign to her, but Isaac shrugs. "You didn't know me before." He says, but that doesn't seem to help her confusion. "It's kind of a long story."

"I'm a vampire. I got nothin' but time."

Isaac looks at her out of the corner of his eye. He sees that sweet smile and those brilliant green eyes and realizes that he doesn't care what she is. To him, she's Charlee. She's his Charlee.

Not in the mood for sad stories of his earlier youth Isaac grabs the side of Charlee's face and kisses her. It's the first kiss he's ever given her that he doesn't feel like he has to hold back on, and God it's liberating.

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**_I am ashamed of this chapter. I don't think it's very good._**

**_Reviews and feedback are always welcome._**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or it's characters**_

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"You seem happy," Erica chirps when Isaac comes to their lunch table. But the boy just continues to smile. Erica's snide, know-it-all tone isn't even enough to bring Isaac down today when he sits next to her at lunch. "You and the girlfriend make up?"

"Yeah, but that's old news." Isaac says sort of wistfully and starts to twist the stem off his apple. He hadn't told the others, mostly because he didn't want to and he had spent almost the entire weekend with Charlee or asleep.

After the 'big reveal' they had talked for hours, sort of comparing notes between them. Apparently: vampires were faster than werewolves, but werewolves were stronger. Charlee's sight was better, but Isaac's sense of smell was stronger than hers. Their healing was essentially the same, and the shift had hurt the first time it happened to both of them. And the more they talked the more Isaac felt like he had found a kindred spirit in Charlee. Someone he didn't have to hide from. Who could walk beside him in this new world they had both come to, not in front of to shield or protect.

Beside him Erica beams; he's not 100% sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, so he just assumes it's 50-50. But whatever she was going to do or say is cut off when Stiles barrels onto the scene and sits down at the table. "Guys, guys, guys!"

"Jesus Stiles, spaz much? We were having a conversation." Erica chastises, righting her milk that is thankfully not open.

"Sorry, this is important." Erica looks offended, as if the idea that what she was saying wasn't important was astounding, but Stiles ignores her and pulls a crinkled newspaper out of his back pack. "Check this out!"

"'Dead girl found off I-5'. So?" Scott read aloud before returning to looking for weak spots in his apple.

"So, you don't know the whole story." Stiles tells him with his own know-it-all smirk. "I heard my dad talking and he said that the ME said that she died of exsanguination, from her neck, from two holes in her neck. Dude! Vampires are real and they're in Beacon Hills!"

The amount of excitement Stiles has when he says this is outstanding, far too high for news about a dead girl and new possible threat to their town.

Isaac's eyes widen and his skin pales. He takes the paper from Stiles quickly, maybe a little _too_ quickly, and pretends to read it.

Were there other vampires in town? Other than Charlee and her pack (or clan or whatever she called them)? Isaac feels his gut drop as the most logical conclusion comes to him. Or had Charlee or the others been killing people in Beacon Hills? Feeding on them in secret? Was that why she had been so friendly to him? Was she a 'honey pot trap' to slither them in to the Beacon Hills pack unaware so they could murder? No…no Charlee wouldn't….but he hadn't thought she was a vampire either so….

"Vampires aren't real." Erica chides with a roll of her eyes, breaking Isaac's inner mental reel.

"Who says?" The boisterous teen asks.

"Everyone," Scott mentions and the other boy turns to him.

"Everyone says werewolves aren't real either and yet…." Stiles gestures in a very Vanna sort of way at the table and the table concedes he has a point.

"Do you really think vampires are real?" Allison asks Scott with a concerned look but all he can do is shrug.

"I don't know…"

"I do!" Stiles says and snatches the paper back to present it again.

"Why don't we all wait until we see if anything else comes up before we start jumping to conclusions like vampires?" Scott offers evenly.

But Stiles just huffs. "Remember the time we did that the last time and that didn't work out? I do. Vampires!"

The table grows rather somber as they remember the many deaths that had touched them in the past year. "Has Derek said anything?"

Isaac looks up to see Scott looking at him. "What? No. Why would you ask me?"

"Because you live with him?" Scott arches a brow at how defensive Isaac sounds and the Beta reels it in.

"No. No he hasn't said anything."

It's not a lie….but Isaac still feels bad for saying it. He's hiding things from his friends, his pack, for a _girl_. A girl who might be using him. But….he doesn't want to believe, doesn't want to think that she could have been using him. That it was all a lie.

"It might not hurt to keep an eye up but, for now, let's not jump to conclusions. You might just have to accept that this is just the work of normal, horrible people." Scott tells them and the human teen huffs as he flops into a seat, muttering 'when has it ever just been normal regular serial killers in this town?'

Regular, non-homicidal conversation returns to the table slowly, but Isaac doesn't really listen. He discretely pulls his phone out of his pocket and texts Charlee. _:I need to see you. Tonight, after school. The woods outside of town?:_

She texts back later that she'll see him then, and Isaac doesn't like that that now gives him a drop in his stomach instead of a sore of his heart like it would have 15 minutes ago.

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After lacrosse practice Isaac doesn't go home.

He heads for the woods he plans to meet Charlee in later to clear his head.

It's getting complicated in there, what with half his brain saying Charlee wasn't like that and the other half that he doesn't know her at all and only _thinks_ he does.

The facts are pretty solid. He only met her like a month ago. She was hiding the fact that she was a vampire from him the whole time up until a few days ago. She and the others came here not long ago, has no idea where she was before, and dead people start showing up. Solid.

But….how he feels. That's a different story.

Isaac sighs heavily and sits on a log.

He doesn't know what to do, what to think, who to ask to help him figure it out.

If he told anyone, they would know Charlee was a vampire and become hostile. If he told just Scott he would tell him to follow his heart, no matter the cost. If he told Derek he would tell him that he was an idiot, tricked and trapped by a pretty face. _'Maybe he's right'_ Isaac thinks, running his hand through his hair. When had a pretty girl ever been interested in him? Or anything worked out for him?

The Beta sighs again and looks up. The sun is starting to set. She should be here soon.

Isaac passes the time by looking around, surveying the scenery.

They had spent several hours of one night racing through the woods after a rather childish debate on who was faster and needed proof. Charlee was, by a long shot, and literally ran circles around until he tackled her to the ground; using his superior strength to pin her down. Even though she had been 'defeated' she had laughed, uninhibited and loud, and Isaac could see the spark in her bright green eyes, free and alive, in the dark. That wall around her that she kept up to keep people away, keep herself down, was gone and Isaac can tell this might be the first time she was actually happy about what she was. She was absolutely beautiful, and he had kissed her so he couldn't fall any deeper into her eyes.

_'What a fool…..'_

Isaac's hearing picks up the light flitter across the leaves and knows she's coming. True enough, by the time he stands she's there. Her face is bright from the wind beating against it as she ran and wide smile on her face.

"Hey," She says and dashes over to him, by his side in a blink. Her arms wrap around him in a hug and Isaac's heart clenches. The clench must translate into his physical body because when Charlee pulls back she looks at him and asks, "What's wrong?"

Isaac sighs, looking down when he tells her, "Something happened."

"What?" Charlee asks in immediate concern and worry. Concern and worry _for_ Isaac.

The pit in his stomach grows into a casum. He doesn't want to ask, believe. But he has to know. There's probably a more delicate way to ask but what comes out of Isaac's mouth is, "Did you or the others kill a girl by interstate 5?" And he knew in that instant that that was wrong.

"What?!" Charlee shouts as her face becomes twisted with anger and she drops her arms from his waist.

"It was in the paper and-"Oh, so you automatically thought it was us?!"

"No! My friend Stiles did." Isaac says, trying to salvage himself

But Charlee hisses in disgust through her teeth and turns her back on him. "I can't believe you thought I would do something like that." Isaac can hear the hurt underlying her anger when she crosses her arms.

"I didn't! I don't!" He says and reaches for her, but the violent shrugs his hand off her shoulder.

"_Don't _touch me!" She hisses, lips curled back like her fangs will come out but don't. She glares at him and prepares to stomp off.

"Charlee-"

Isaac tried to go after her but the second he did he was cut off, literally, but a hand on his throat and feet off the ground.

"Call me _old fashion_, but when a lady says 'leave her alone' a man leaves her alone." The man holding him in the air says, looking up at him coldly like he's an insignificant flea. He remembers him, from the game….

"Marcus stop!" Charlee shouts, back to Isaac and Marcus' side in a flash.

"I thought you said this little thing was over. Is he stalking you?" Marcus asks while looking to the younger vampire with bored expression, like he wasn't holding another man practically his own height and size like he was a paper weight in the air. Isaac tries to struggle, break free, but he can't. It's hard to fight back with superior strength when you can't breathe.

"No! Marcus put him down! You're choking him!"

Charlee smacks Marcus in his other shoulder but it doesn't faze him. He instead just talks to Isaac again, "Is that what you are kid? Some crazy stalker wolf that's got a thing for seemingly helpless, cute blondes?"

Isaac obviously can't answer, what with his windpipe crushed and all, but he still tries to shake his head. His lungs burn for air and the back of his vision is starting to darken. He's going to pass out. He knows it. He's done it a lot with the with the freezer, and the thought of the small dark place sends him into a panic and he can't even attempt to breath now.

"_Marcus_, Isaac is _mine_!" The authoritative shout from the progeny must get through to Marcus because he drops Isaac into a heap at his feet. The Beta gasps for mouthfuls of air, coughing up almost as much as he takes in with the rush. Charlee is knelt beside him in a second, rubbing his back and assessing his healing injuries. "Isaac?" She asks as his breathing evens, imploring him with her eyes in he was alright, and he nods. Satisfied, Charlee then turns her anger on her sire. "What the _hell_ Marcus?"

"I thought he was attacking you." He says with a shrug, like he was completely justified in almost strangling the other man. "The last time you were alone in the woods with a boy it didn't work out so well."

Charlee's face pales before flushing angrily. She's on her feet quickly and pointing at Marcus accusingly. "That has nothing to do with this!"

"Doesn't it? You aren't the best judge of character Charlee. What if he tried to kill you?"

"I wouldn't," The vampires look down at Isaac, who rasps out the words as his throat still heals. "I wouldn't." He says it again, more clearly now that he's cleared his throat, and stands. Marcus glares at him, obviously untrusting of the boy so close to his progeny.

"Isaac came to talk to me." Charlee says, trying to break the heated staring contest between them and regaining Marcus's attention. "He says his friends think that there are other vampires in the area."

"There aren't." He says nonchalantly.

"But-"There aren't." Marcus cuts in before Charlee can argue, his face telling her that there was no room for that.

Isaac growls in his throat, unappreciative of how he is treating her, but swallows his animosity down. It wasn't his place. "My friend Stiles, his dad works for the police department. He said there was a murdered girl by the interstate."

"So it had to be vampires?" The older man asks with a glowering expression.

"She had two holes in her neck."

Marcus seems to stop and think but then tells them (or rather Charlee), "I'll talk to Eden."

"Marcus?" The girl asks, and Isaac can tell that there is a hint of worry in her voice.

The older man smiles slightly and squeezes her shoulder. "We'll take care of it." He assures, and spares Isaac the most passing of looks before he takes off; his incredible speed leaving a blur where he should be.

"What was that about?"

"Marcus is just worried." Charlee tells him soberly, fidgeting, and Isaac can tell that she's worried too. But she doesn't comment on it. She instead looks to him and says, "I'm sorry I yelled."

Isaac smiles and brushes his hand against hers. "It's ok. I'd yell too if you accused me of killing someone too." The both laugh a little soberly and Charlee rewraps her arms around Isaac who reciprocates.

"We don't kill people."

"I never thought you did it though. Not really. I knew you couldn't." He mumbles against her hair and he thinks she tenses in his arms.

"Will your friends think that?"

Isaac looks down, sighing when her green eyes look to him for answers. "I don't know." He says honestly. They aren't good with new things, with change. And they have every reason to be. It usually means trouble and pain and death for all of them. "I…I didn't tell them-"Maybe you shouldn't."

Isaac's face balks curiously when Charlee tells him this, staring at the nonexistent pattern on his shirt. "It's gonna come out eventually, especially now that they might be _looking_." He reminds her. He pulls a stray bit of hair behind her ear. "It'll be more of a problem if they found out another way." Because then they were lying to them. They were both lying and hiding things from them. And it's difficult for Isaac to think of his friends as 'them'.

"I don't want to."

The werewolf sighs but concedes, for now, though he doesn't admit defeat. They'll tell them, eventually. But with the current stir maybe _now_ wasn't the best time until they could all figure out what was going on. There was no reason to get everyone all worked up unnecessarily.

"So…" Isaac drawls as he continues to hold Charlee. "I'm yours?"

There is a flinch in Charlee's shoulder, and Isaac thinks he can feel her face heat up from where it's buried against his chest; though he might have imagined it. "I…I don't know where that came from."

Isaac chuckles and kisses the top of her head. "I don't know. I kind of liked it. Possessive Charlee is hot. Of course regular Charlee is hot too." The girl upper cuts the boy in the ribs, though with only enough strength for it to be considered a warning. He laughs and chases after her when she takes off, unaware of the predators that lurked in the shadows.

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**_Not a fan of this one either..._****_Reviews and feedback are always welcome._**


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